Gene Williams, speaker of North Florida English par excellence
The other day I heard someone describe our Regional Southern Accent as "ignorant-sounding.” It’s not the first time this has been said for sure, and as a seventh generation North Floridian, I’m offended. I know (and am related to) a number of smart folks with southern accents. But I don’t really have one anymore, and I seem to be one of many in my generation who've lost it.
Some blame the steady decline of regional accents on TV – which fits my timeline pretty well. I probably grew up sounding more like Jan Brady (the one my age) than like my mother. The British, experiencing the same issues with their version of the language, refer to the bland "standard" as "BBC English.”
In my case, I also remember school having a role. Learning phonics created a rift for me in first grade between the way I said things and the way they were to be spelled. I clearly remember my teacher addressing the way I tried to "sound out" the word dog which I pronounced more like dawlg. Cain't for can't was another issue.
But I have to admit to some prejudice too. My family moved to South Florida when I was nine, a place at that time populated with transplants from the Northeast – many from the New York/New Jersey area. I remember being embarrassed by my mother saying “spigot" instead of faucet, and "fixin to" in place of "about to," or referring to something as (oh my) "wompy-jawed" when it was crooked - not to mention the typical vowel shifts and drawl... I just wanted to be like everybody else.
That's a shame, and I'm sorry. Because almost everybody else in my generation wanted to be like everybody else too, we're quickly losing a way of speaking that ties us historically to not only our mothers and grandmothers, but to the long-ago Europeans and Africans who first settled these parts. PBS had a wonderful series on this years ago (which is still available at the library).
Now, I wish I could regain my accent. I'll try, at least, to appreciate those sounds and their speakers as the treasures they are. I'll make a point of using "wompy-jawed" when the possibility arises. I'll keep swooning over Gene Williams when he describes his family’s business on the public service announcements on Channel 5. And I'll tell the next smarty-pants, bland-hungry speaker of English Lite who insults my people to go . . . watch the Brady Bunch.
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